SECOND SOVIET CRAFT TAKES PICTURES AND SAMPLES SOIL

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Published: March 6, 1982

The Soviet Union landed another spacecraft on Venus yesterday, the second this week, and reported that the vehicle had transmitted new high-resolution color pictures and chemical assays of the planet's cloud-shrouded surface.

The Venera 14 lander touched down in an area about 1,650 feet high some 600 miles east of the site where the Venera 13 lander put down Monday. The landing site is east of the Phoebe region, a rugged territory near the Equator and below the volcanic highlands known as Beta.

The lander reportedly functioned for nearly one hour before succumbing to the 900-degree Fahrenheit temperatures at the Venusian surface. The Venera 13 lander transmitted for more than two hours. The vehicles sent their radio signals to Earth through their mother ships as they continued flying by Venus on their way to a solar orbit.

According to Tass, the official Soviet press agency, the Venera 14 lander, like its predecessor, tested the electrical conductivity of Venusian rocks, drilled through the surface to test lower strata of soil and scooped up a soil sample for analysis. The soil was examined to establish its chemical composition, while gases drawn in with the sample were also analyzed. No details of the results have been announced, though Soviet scientists have promised to share their findings with colleagues from other countries.

However, subsequent reports on the Venera 13 landing Monday disclosed that the craft touched down in a sandy and rocky area where, according to color pictures, the topsoil and rocks are dark brown.

Tass reported that the landings yielded ''convincing proof'' that the Venusian sky is orange. On previous Soviet missions to Venus, a less sophisticated analysis indicated that in one area the amounts of natural radioactive elements in the soil, uranium, thorium and potassium, were almost as high as in granite rocks on Earth. But in other areas where Soviet landings occurred the radioactive elements were less abundant, Tass reported.

The two Veneras, launched last fall, took four months to reach their destination. Soviet scientists have described plans to continue Venus exploration in 1984 with two more spacecraft probes. The vehicles would also be directed to observe Halley's comet on its reappearance in 1986.